The prior art discloses a wide range of inventive shelters of the type described in the field of this disclosure. Of particular interest is a retractable motor vehicle shelter described in application publication 2010/0200035 of inventors Jordache et al. This shelter provides opposing parallel tracks in which arched poles move to support a canopy. This device is quite complex and uses a motor for automated actuation. A similar device described in application publication 2012/0048320 may be manual or motor driven and uses cylindrical bases for arched ribs supporting a cover. The bases move within hollows in tracks. One drawback of this approach is that the ribs can easily rub against the sides of the tracks causing wear and generating wear-debris.
Other frame supported tent-like enclosures are known in the prior art, but all of the prior art devices are either too flimsy so as to be subject to breakdown and jamming of moving parts, or too complex so that they are too expensive for broad commercial acceptance and also subject to high maintenance costs due to their large number of moving parts.
In contrast to the prior art apparatus, the presently described and illustrated apparatus is structurally robust and uses a new approach in holding and moving supporting canopy frames so that jamming in tracks is not possible, wear is negligible, and manual operation is easily performed as the covering canopy is opened and closed. Furthermore, the design of the disclosed apparatus is relatively inexpensive to produce making it highly attractive commercially.